History lesson

Learn from it, or you will have to take the class again

When Nazi Germany seized control of a big chunk of Czechoslovakia in 1938, appeaser extraordinaire Neville Chamberlain referred to it as "a faraway country of which we know little."

The Nazi invasion was based on the simple and reasonable enough-sounding pretext that ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland wanted to be annexed to the Fatherland. Hitler's invasion of that small, seemingly insignificant country led, of course, to total war in Europe and a global conflict that cost 100 million lives. All because the Western democracies didn't see -- or didn't want to see -- the insatiable appetites of an expansionist power led by a coldly calculating mass murderer.
Russia has used the pretext that ethnic Russians living in a part of the independent republic of Georgia want to be folded into Russia. The Georgians, they say, are doing "ethnic cleansing" of the Russians there, requiring Russia to intervene to defend them.

Of course, this requires Russian tanks, fighter jets, and ground troops to sweep into Georgia proper, killing thousands while they begin to occupy the country (despite their “agreement” to a “ceasefire.”)
To many Americans, Georgia is a "faraway land of which we know little." Nor do we much care: we've got Michael Phelps to cheer on and summer barbeques to attend to.
But as history has demonstrated time and time again, it's the seemingly small crises that blow up into big ones.

It may be a stretch to compare this to Nazi expansionism, but anytime the Russians get uppity, you better pay attention.